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Irena Sendler. A nurse example of love of freedom
Lissette Paola Pulgarin Bilvao1
Irena Sendler. A nurse example of love of freedom
Abstract
This article summarizes the life of Polish nurse, Irena Sendler, who during the Second World War helped in the escape of over 2500 Jewish children, held in the Warsaw ghetto. In spite of having been arrested by the Gestapo, she never revealed the names or whereabouts of the children she saved. Irena reminds us that nursing is the art of protecting the lives of others
Key words: nursing; holocaust; rescue work.
Irena Sendler. Una enfermera ejemplo de amor a la libertad
Resumen
En este artículo se resume la vida de la enfermera polaca Irena Sendler, quien durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, ayudó a escapar a más de 2 500 niños judíos recluidos en el gueto de Varsovia. Aunque fue arrestada por la Gestapo, nunca reveló los nombres ni el paradero de los niños a quienes salvó. Irena nos recuerda que la enfermería es un arte para proteger la vida de los demás.
Palabras clave: enfermería; holocausto; trabajo de rescate. 1 Undergraduate student. Young researcher, Faculty of Nursing, Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia. Irena Sendler. Uma enfermeira exemplo email: [email protected] de amor à liberdade Subventions: Comité para el Desarrollo de la Investigación –CODI– de la Universidad Resumo de la Universidad de Antioquia. Este artigo faz um resumo da vida da enfermeira polaca Irena Conflicts of interest: none Sendler, quem durante a segunda guerra mundial, ajudou a escapar a mais de 2 500 meninos judeus enclausurados no gueto Receipt date: November 30th 2011. de Varsóvia. Apesar de ter sido presa pela Gestapo, nunca revelou rd Approval date: March 23 2012. os nomes nem o paradeiro dos meninos a quem salvou. Irena nos recorda que a enfermagem é uma arte para proteger a vida dos How to cite this article: Pulgarín-Bilvao L. Irena Sendler. A nurse example of love of demais. freedom. Invest Educ Enferm. 2012;30(2): 277-280. Palavras chave: enfermagem; holocausto;Invest Eductrabalho Enferm. de resgate.2012;30(1) • 277 Lissette Paola Pulgarin Bilvao
Toward 1910, while the world debated on of Zegota, a clandestine society in favor of Jews.6 revolutionary thought and conquest of wars, Irena joined them, under the nom de guerre of Poland engendered one of the most important Jolanda and managed to enter the ghettos to women in the history of humanity, whose feats rescue lives in amid death; she offered help to the could be qualified as heroic. We are referring to families, and to avoid problems during inspections Irena Sendler, a nurse known as the “Angel of the she registered them with fictitious catholic names Warsaw Ghetto”1 for having saved the lives of over or as carriers of contagious diseases.7 Pain was 2500 Jewish children during the Second World felt there: “…The color of the ghetto is the color War. Her story took place under anonymity after of the paper covering the corpses lying on the 40 years of communist regime in her country and streets before they are taken away”.8 Jolanda came to light in the fall of 1999. Now, without needed a strategy that would allow her to get the the hope of being rescued from oblivion, a group Jewish children out of the ghetto and, thus, avoid of North American students found this treasure their seemingly inevitable sad demise. With the that they allowed to shine. Since then, through conviction that she had to struggle for those who the theatrical representations of “Life in a Jar”,2 needed her care, she gathered some collaborators which toured North America and Europe, this and set out to rescue a great number of people. great woman’s life began to be told. This was how she contacted each of the captive Irena grew up in a family that instilled values in Jewish families and offered them to rescue their her and taught her to love others: “I did nothing children, guaranteeing only that they would not special, I merely did what I should, nothing more. die in the ghetto. Irena was able to deliver more The reason I rescued the children originates from than 2500 children from captivity in trash bags, my home, during my childhood. I was educated luggage, tool boxes, coffins, and ambulances; in the belief that people need to be helped from the smallest of these children was six-month old the heart, without regard to their religion or Elzbieta Ficowska who was taken to freedom in nationality”.3 a wooden box with holes, next to a load of bricks and under the effects of sedatives so she would not She was an activist; she never agreed with the be discovered. Today, she leads the Association of politics governing her country. Ever since her the Children of the Holocaust. 9 youth, she was concerned with democratic participation; she saw her world through the When the children managed to leave the ghetto, they were baptized with Christian names, which great Polish writers and greedily devoured those Irena wrote one-by-one on strips of paper that she words, which reflected the pain and suffering hid in jars which she would then burry under an of her people; thus, ratifying her inconformity apple tree in a neighboring garden. She hoped with the injustice governing the world, and with that, over time, the children could again meet her homeland submerged in a war for territorial with their past and, thus, diminish some of their control. pain.10 When Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939, But the Third Reich struck with increased severity Irena was working in the Department of Social against Poland, and during one of these incursions Welfare in Warsaw.4 She was in charge of deprived Irena of her freedom, subjected her to providing nutrition to impoverished children in this torture, and sentenced her to death: “they broke city, in which camps proliferated concentrating her feet and legs, but no one could break her over 400,000 Jews, mostly children, women, will”.11 She was willing to go to her grave with and elderly. Thousands died every month due to the secret. On the very day she was destined hunger, infectious disease, or were murdered in to die, she was miraculously set free. Although the extermination camps.5 sentenced to live clandestinely, Irena was finally The horror of the annihilation of the human able to open the jar with the names of the children species in its most abrupt form led to the creation saved; locating many of them, who thanked the
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opportunity she offered them of surviving and 2. Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project [Internet]. having a family with which to grow: “My Jewish Kansas. 2006 - [cited 2011 May 10]. Available mother gave me life and my Polish mother saved from: http://www.irenasendler.com it. But when I say mother, I am talking about the 3. Association of “Children of the Holocaust” mother who reared me, but I do not forget the one in Poland Blog. Irena Senderowa [Internet]. who brought me into this world.” 12 Other children Varsovia: Stowarzyszenie Dzieci Holocaustu w rescued by Irena have commented that they owe Polsce. [cited 2011 September 11]. Available their lives to Ms. Sendler, who was “the light in from: http://www.dzieciholocaustu.org.pl/szab3. the terrible darkness of the ghetto”, and that their php?s=en_sendlerowa.php lives were a testimony of the victory of good over 4. Mechlinski DL. Irena Sendler the essence of a evil.13 polish heroine. Polish Am News. [Internet] 2007 Irena always modestly accepted the praise and April-May. [cited 2011 August 17]; Available from: http://www.polishamericancenter.org/PANews/ honors granted: “each child saved with my help April07/Page15.pdf and that of my collaborators is the justification of my existence and not a title for glory”,14 “we are 5. Easton A. Holocaust heroine’s survival tale. BBC not a species of heroes. On the contrary, I still News. [Internet]. 2005 March. [cited 2011 June have pangs of conscience for having done too 19]. Available from: http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/ little”.15 mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/ europe/4314145.stm The title of Righteous among the Nations, of 6. Heffron C. Irena Sendler: The Polish Angel. Honorable Citizen of Israel, the civilian award [Internet]. Cincinnati: American Catholic.org; 2008. “Order of the White Eagle”, the nomination to [cited 2011 July 23]. Available from: http://www. the Nobel Prize, biographical books, theater americancatholic.org/About/PressRoom/Magazine/ productions, and her life taken to the silver screen prsam0708.asp with “The courageous Heart of Irena Sendler”16, 7. The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation. are nothing more than recognition given to her Irena Sendler. [cited 2011 July 12]. Available from: prestigious and invaluable humanitarian work. http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/es/salvadores/ Her example will remain over time in millions of polacos/sendler/irena-sendler/ people who are touched upon recognizing in her a courageous nurse, with an unshakable will and 8. Snyder D. Rescued children two stone. [Internet]. a fervent desire to serve others: “Human beings 2008 [cited 2011 August 28]. Available from: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1141/ are fundamentally sacred. Human dignity implies is_5_45/ai_n31187248/?tag=content;col1 accepting the human obligation of serving with love, of existing for the sake of others”.17 9. Sliwowska W. The last eyewitnesses: children of the Holocaust speak. Elzbieta Ficowsca. [Internet]. Irena passed away at 93 years of age in her Evanston: Publication Data; 1999. [cited 2011 beloved Warsaw on 12 May 2008, a date in October 30]. Available from: http://books.google. which the world celebrates the Day of the Nursing com.co/books?id=-Mle6EmnMDwC&pg=PA273 Professional, because it is the anniversary of the &lpg=PA273&dq=elzbieta+ficowska&source=b birth of Florence Nightingale, considered the l&ots=pHT7pSRptv&sig=xBjO4vssh1HeogC9DO mother of modern nursing. kwIqKn-S8&hl=es&ei=3Gy4To32A4eW2QXG8- sXMDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnu m=3&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAjge#v=onepage&q=el zbieta%20ficowska&f=false References 10. Temiño I. La heroína que salvó a 2.500 niños. Magazine el mundo: Mirada Atrás. [Internet] 1. Glowinski M. The Black Seasons: The Villa on 2007. [cited 2011 October 13]. Available Odolanska Street. Evanston: Publication Data; from: http://www.elmundo.es/suplementos/ 2005 magazine/2007/407/1184167371.html
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11. Arévalo MJ. El Ángel del Gueto de Varsovia. 15. Marcena M. La paradoja de la memoria: Reflexión [Internet]. Montevideo: Comité Central israelita sobre Irena Sendler. Rev Enferm Global. [Internet] del Uruguay; 2011. Julio 2011 [acceso 2011 2008 June. [cited 2011 November 1];13. November 15]. Available from: http://www.cciu. Available from: revistas.um.es/eglobal/article/ org.uy/news_detail.php?title=El-%C1ngel-del- download/24111/23371 Gueto-de-Varsovia&id=3209 16. Knight G. Female Action Heroes: A Guide to 12. Snyder D. Holocaust heroine recalled by two she Women in Comics, Video Games, Film, and saved. NBC News. [Internet] 2008. [cited 2011 Television. [Internet]. California: Publication Data; November 151]. Available from: http://worldblog. 2010 [cited 2011 October 28]. Available from: msnbc.msn.com/_news/2008/09/24/4376362- http://books.google.com/books?id=0PKSFHwhT holocaust-heroine-recalled-by-two-she-saved GYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Female+Action+ Heroes:+A+Guide+to+Women+in+Comics,+ 13. Wachter P. Irena Sendler. [Internet]. España: Fundación Video+Games,+Film,+and+Television&hl=es& Cultura de Paz; 2010 [cited 2011 November 4]. ei=cKq4TqqcB8jftgf-y72xBw&sa=X&oi=book_ Available from: http://www.1325mujerestejiendolapaz. result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDEQ6AEw org/sem_irena.html AA#v=onepage&q&f=false 14. Hevesi D. Irena Sendler, Lifeline to Young Jews, 17. Lindholm L, Lindstrom U, Zetterlund JE. Teoría Is Dead at 98. New York Times Europe. [Internet] del cuidado caritativo. En: Marriner A, Raile 2008. [cited 2011 November 2]. Available from: M. Modelos y teorías de enfermería. California: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/world/ Elsevier; 2007. p.198. europe/13sendler.html
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